I have been a bit thinking about the “command economy”-type nature of the Docs.
The Docs are written by those who already have the knowledge contained in the Docs (=the authors). Obviously, there is no way around that But the people who already have that knowledge and who have the background to know how to search and find specific information are not the target group of the Docs. And the target group, the average user, remains widely excluded.
As far as I understand it until now, the needs of the users are assumed - but the assumptions are not verified (there are no external incentives from the demand): we do not know if the content and the structures of the Docs suit the needs of the users, both in terms of understanding but also in terms of structures (to find things).
On the other hand, the needs of the users usually arrive in ask.fp (now that I get a bit more into the Docs, I start to recognize that the Docs are not very present in ask.fp). At ask.fp, the users put forward what they have looked for, what they have found, how they interpret it and what issues they still have to solve.
If demanded Docs pages are inappropriate, or not existing, or do not fulfill the needs of demand in other ways, it would be ask.fp people who are closest to indicative information - not the Fedora Docs team. One question that is a bit illustrative: which query does the average user formulate on his search engine before he/she has the needed information, and where does he/she then end up*. The Docs team has internally no way to evaluate such questions, but this would help to tailor to the users’ needs. Ben made a good point some time ago that is illustrative for what i mean:
In the end, the point is: the Fedora Docs team makes up the supply, but it is ask.fp that makes up the demand.
Some time ago, @augenauf facilitated an example of how ask.fp and Docs can support each other, see this and that (just an example as initial incentive : ).
Therefore, I would like to start a little discussion about this topic, in general terms:
- What do you think of creating closer ties between ask.fp and Fedora Docs?
- If you think this makes sense (somehow), how to create synergies between both?
I have yet nothing specific in mind, but maybe discussing the relation between the two already creates interesting incentives that are worth to keep in mind
My personal perception is that ask.fp is generally a bit isolated from the wider Fedora community due to its different context. Closer ties and “common topics/goals” may also foster a bit more interactions and exchange.